Star Trek: Seekers

Aug 4, 2013

Promotional mockup that was created using Rob Caswell’s illustrations

August 2014 will see Star Trek: Seekers, which is a sequel to the Star Trek: Vanguard series of books. Written by the Vanguard authors David Mack, Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore. Seekers will feature two ships, the Constitution-class USS Endeavour and Archer-class USS Sagittarius. This will include characters from the Vanguard series and continue their ongoing mission of exploration in the Taurus Reach.

David Mack writes on his blog that the inspiration for this series came from two sources. When the three authors were waiting for reader reactions to the end of the Vanguard saga last year, they started brainstorming ideas for another project they could work on together. A a series of mock book covers created by artist Rob Caswell, had sparked David’s imagination and he showed Dayton and Kevin.

One of the original mock covers by Rob Caswell that inspired them

Rob Caswell’s covers focused on an imaginary series called The Seekers, a sequel TV series to the original Star Trek. His book covers were inspired by the 1970s-era anthologies of James Blish episode adaptations. Part of their aesthetic was the use of large, stylised numbers rather than titles for each volume, as well as a distinctive use of graphic overlays and hyperbolic taglines.

All three of the authors had grown up with the reading style of James Blish and combined with the mock covers that Rob Caswell had done, they wanted make it real. They wrote a brief proposal and sent it to their editors at Simon & Schuster. The editors and licensor like the idea and gave them the green light to proceed. David Mack had contacted Rob Caswell to let him know that a large part of the inspiration to write these new books came from his work. The authors also hope that Simon & Schuster will be able to strike a deal with Rob to acquire (with a few minor tweaks) his original mock covers that inspired this new series, so that they can serve as the covers for their new retro-flavored Star Trek adventures.

The first book will be out next August, 2014 and maybe book two at Shore Leave 36 which is a fan run science fiction convention in Hunt Valley, Maryland.

The two books will constitute a single two-part story to kick off the new series and acclimate readers to the alternating format. The David Mack books will focus mostly on the crew of the Archer-class USS Sagittarius, and the books by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore will focus on the crew and officers of the Constitution-class USS Endeavour.

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